GUEST OPINION: Support for free speech drops if you hate message

By GENE POLICINSKI
First Amendment Center
Does anybody have a sense of humor anymore?

The First Amendment’s role in protecting free speech is to shelter remarks that most people don’t like. Words that everybody finds acceptable need no defense.

In between those two polar points is the daily give-and-take of discourse. The verbal tumult of braggadocio, insults, satire and plain speaking can pass the time of day or give rise to what lawyers and Supreme Court justices politely call “robust discussion.”

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